Biden's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm insists high gas prices are 'a very compelling case' to buy an electric car: Official is worth $8million and recently exercised $1.6m stock option in electric car company

• Granholm, in a clip surfaced Tuesday, made the case for going electric amid sky high gas prices 
• 'If you filled up your EV [electric vehicle] and you filled up your gas tank with gasoline, you would save $60 per fill-up,' she said  
• Granholm made similar points in a White House press briefing in May 2021. ‘If you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you,’ she said then
• Granholm, who is worth $8million according to Forbes
• Last month she also exercised stock options in Proterra, an electric vehicle company where she served as a director
• She ended up pocketing $1.6million on the transaction, according to an energy department spokesperson 

President Joe Biden's Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm became the latest Democratic politician to suggest the solution to high gas prices was to buy an electric vehicle. 

Granholm, in a clip tweeted out by the Republican National Committee Tuesday, made the case for going electric amid sky high gas prices. 

'If you filled up your EV [electric vehicle] and you filled up your gas tank with gasoline, you would save $60 per fill-up by going electric rather than using gasoline but it's a very compelling case, but again, we want to bring down the price at the point of purchase,' Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, said. 

Her comments come as the national average price for one gallon of gas has skyrocketed to over $5. 

Granholm made similar points in a White House press briefing in May 2021, according to Fox News.

‘If you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you,’ she said at the time.

Granholm, who is worth $8million according to Forbes, recently served as director of an electric car company - and held millions in the firm's stock.

Last month she exercised stock options in the company, called Proterra, pocketing $1.6million from the transaction, according to an energy department spokesperson. 

She's not the first Democrat to encourage people to go electric to solve the crisis at the pump.

Senator and fellow Michigander Debbie Stabenow said last week that record-high gas prices 'don't matter' to her because she has an electric vehicle as she urged Americans to by eco-friendly vehicles and decrease reliability on greedy oil companies. 

'On the issue of gas prices – after waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country to finally get my electric vehicle – I got it and drove it from Michigan to here this last weekend and went by every gas station and it didn't matter how high it was,' the Michigan senator said.

She added: 'I'm looking forward to the opportunity for us to move to vehicles that aren't going to be dependent on the whims of the oil companies and the international markets.'

United States senators make an annual salary of $174,000. Michigan's average household income is $59,234 between 2016-2020. 

The average cost of an electric vehicle, according to Kelley Blue Book, is $56,437, which is approximately $10,000 higher than the industry average including cars that are electric and gas. 

 Her remarks were met with fury. Republican Repo. Byron Donalds said: DEMs continue to laugh at the struggles of working-class Americans who are suffering due to Biden's Price Hike. Just look at how happy Debbie Stabenow is when boasting about driving her EV.

'I can assure you Michiganders aren't laughing.'

Some of President Joe Biden's lowest marks are on his handling of gas prices, which the administration continues to dub the 'Putin gas price hike' in an attempt to peg the continually inflating numbers on the war in Eastern Europe. 

Michigan is a battleground state that went marginally red in 2016 for Trump by just 0.3 percent and swung back to blue in 2020, going 50.6 percent for Biden and 47.8 for the former president's reelection.

Stabenow's comments downplaying concerns of Americans who are struggling to afford the $100 plus it cost to fill their cars' gas tanks came during a hearing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about soaring inflation.

The Democratic senator from Michigan is on the Senate Finance Committee, where Yellen was testifying on Tuesday about Biden's Fiscal Year 2023 budget amid record-high inflation. 

Soaring gas prices and high inflation for other basic goods have emerged as key issues for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats ahead of the mid-term elections.

Gas prices have now more than doubled since Biden took office in January 2020, when the national average stood at $2.39. 

A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 83 percent of Americans say that the economy is either an extremely or very important issue in determining how they will vote in November. 

When it comes to economic issues, Biden scores the worst on gas prices, with 72 percent of voters disapproving of his handling of the issue.

Only 27 percent of Americans approve of how Biden is handling gas prices. 

The administration continues to call rising gas prices 'Putin's price hike,' and places the blame on the conflict in Eastern Europe.

Republican critics blame Biden's domestic energy policies for a decline in oil production, saying that his administration is waging a 'war on American energy'. 

'Joe Biden's war on American energy has forced families across the country to empty their wallets to fill their tanks,' said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement over the weekend.

'Unfortunately, Biden is doubling-down on his disastrous agenda because he's not the one paying the price – the American people are.'